Micah 2:8

"But of late, my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe off the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war."

"My people ... enemy ..." Several things are inherent in the implications of this verse. God's people who do not obey him may no longer look to God as a friend, their status being changed to that of God's enemy! Furthermore, crimes against one's fellow man must be accounted as equivalent to crimes against God! The particular crime in view in this verse was, "You strip the broad-dress-cloak from the upper garment, from those who pass by trustingly, turning away from war, peaceably disposed."[13]

The whole verse is, "an allusion to Mosaic law (Exodus 22:25), according to which the coat taken from the poor as a pledge was to be returned before sunset."[14] Deane defended the the Hebrew text of the O.T. in this verse, stating that "there is no reason for altering it."[15] He also stressed the phrase "of late," indicating that the crimes of Israel for which they were to be punished were recent and that through habitual practice those sins had at that point become a way of life to the once chosen people. Amos had warned Israel against this very sin (Amos 2:8).